New Delhi: Power Employees and Engineers across the country will hold a massive rally in Delhi on November 23 against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 starting from Ramlila Maidan up to Jantar Mantar, Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) Shailendra Dubey said on Monday.
The AIPEF has appealed to all the Chief Ministers of the States and Union Territories urging them to strongly oppose the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the larger interest of the energy sector and electricity consumers.
The National Coordination Committee of Electricity Employees & Engineers (NCCOEEE) has been holding state level conventions across the country in preparation for the Delhi rally for the last four months.
Besides opposing the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022, Power Employees are demanding an old pension scheme and regularisation of all outsourced employees.
The AIPEF Chairman said that although Loksabha has referred Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 to the Standing Committee on Energy but till date the Standing Committee has not held any discussions with Power Employees or electricity consumers, who are the biggest stakeholders.
He said any unilateral action to get the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 passed in Parliament without taking the electricity employees and engineers across the country into confidence will be strongly opposed and all 27 lakh electricity employees and engineers of the country will be forced to resort to Nationwide strike in protest against the move.
Dubey said that after the farmers' agitation last year, the Central Government in a letter sent to the United Kisan Morcha has given a written assurance that the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 will not be placed in Parliament without discussion with all the stakeholders.
He said that the biggest stakeholders in the power sector are electricity consumers and power employees. The Central Government and the Union Ministry of Power have not held any talks till date, neither with the consumer organisations of electricity nor with any organization of power employees, on the proposed amendments through the Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022.
Terming the statement of Union Power Minister R K Singh about Bill as misleading , he said that the matter of giving choice to consumers through Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2022 is completely wrong. Through this amendment, the Central Government is going to hand over electricity distribution to private corporates to supply electricity through the existing network of Government Discoms.
Dubey further said that through this amendment bill, electricity is not going to be cheaper for the common consumer in any way. The main reason for this is that 80 to 85% of the cost of power is the cost of power purchase and the power purchase agreements are already running for 25- 25 years. It is clear that the public is being deceived by talking about competition. (UNI)
